Nighthawks

Nighthawks by Edward Hopper, depicts people in a downtown diner late at night. It is Hopper’s most famous painting and one of the most recognisable paintings in American art.

The scene was inspired by a diner in Greenwich Village near Hopper’s neighbourhood in Manhattan, which has since been demolished. Hopper said that the painting “was suggested by a restaurant on Greenwich Avenue.” He also stated that “I simplified the scene a great deal and made the restaurant bigger.”

Edward Hopper and his wife Josephine (Jo) kept a journal and Jo’s notes provide insights, including the possibility that the painting’s title may have had its origins as a reference to the beak-shaped nose of the man at the bar, or that the appearance of one of the people depicted was tweaked in order to relate to the original meaning of the word. Hopper’s “A Journal of His Work” at the Whitney Museum of American Art, states:

Nighthawks is so widely recognised and the diner scene in Nighthawks has served as the model for a number of homages and parodies in numerous art forms such as: painting, sculpture, literature, film and music. For example, Nighthawks influenced the film “Blade Runner”. The director Ridley Scott used this painting to illustrate the look and mood he wanted for his film.